Working on Christmas Day in Australia: Pay Rates, Public Holidays and Your Rights

If you're rostered on over Christmas, public holiday rates can more than double your pay for the day. The rules are different for full-time, part-time and casual staff, and 2026 has a twist: Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, so most states add a public holiday on Monday 28 December.

Christmas and New Year public holidays 2026 by state

These are the public holidays over Christmas 2026 in the Fair Work Ombudsman's list. Select your state for all its public holidays this year and next.

New Year's Day, Friday 1 January 2027, is a public holiday in every state and territory. Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, public holidays 2026.

Christmas Day pay rates by award

There's no single Christmas Day rate. Your pay for working on a public holiday is set by your award or enterprise agreement, as a percentage of your base hourly rate. These are the public holiday rates in some of the most common awards.

Percentages are of the base (permanent) hourly rate. The casual rates include the 25% casual loading. If you're covered by an enterprise agreement, check it for your rate, or use the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool.

Worked example: an 8-hour shift on Christmas Day

Say your base rate under the Retail Award is $30 an hour and you work 8 hours on Christmas Day.

To work out your own shift, enter your rate, hours and award in our public holiday rate calculator.

Boxing Day on a Saturday: which day is the holiday?

In 2026, both days are public holidays in most of Australia. Saturday 26 December is Boxing Day (Proclamation Day in South Australia) and Monday 28 December is an extra public holiday. Tasmania is the exception: Boxing Day is Monday 28 December only, so Saturday is a normal day there.

• You work on Saturday 26 December: you're working on a public holiday, so your award's public holiday rates apply (outside Tasmania).
• You work Monday to Friday: you get Monday 28 December off, paid for your ordinary hours.
• You're rostered on Monday 28 December: it's a public holiday in every state and territory, so public holiday rates apply.

Some awards and enterprise agreements have their own rules about swapping one public holiday for another day. If your employer says only one of the days counts, check your award or agreement.

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve part-day holidays

Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory make part of Christmas Eve a public holiday. In Queensland it runs from 6pm to midnight on Thursday 24 December. In SA and the NT it runs from 7pm to midnight. SA and the NT do the same on New Year's Eve, from 7pm to midnight on Thursday 31 December.

If you work during those hours and your award has public holiday rates, you get public holiday rates for the hours inside the part-day holiday. For example, a Queensland retail worker on a 2pm to 10pm shift on Christmas Eve is paid their usual rates from 2pm to 6pm and public holiday rates from 6pm to 10pm.

Can your employer make you work on Christmas Day?

Your employer can ask you to work on a public holiday, but the request has to be reasonable. You can refuse if the request isn't reasonable, or if your reasons for refusing are reasonable. This applies to full-time, part-time and casual employees.

Under the Fair Work Act, whether a request or a refusal is reasonable depends on things like:

• the type of business and the work you do
• your personal circumstances, including family responsibilities
• whether you could reasonably expect to be asked to work on a public holiday
• whether you get penalty rates or other pay that reflects working on a public holiday
• whether you're full-time, part-time, casual or a shiftworker
• how much notice your employer gave you, and how much notice you gave when you refused

Do you get paid for Christmas Day if you don't work?

Full-time and part-time employees: yes, if the public holiday falls on a day you'd normally work. You're paid your base rate for the ordinary hours you would have worked. Your employer can't change your roster just to avoid paying you for the public holiday.

Casual employees: no. Casuals are only paid for the hours they work, so there's no pay for a public holiday you don't work. If you do work, you get your award's casual public holiday rate. See casual vs permanent employment for how the two compare over a year.

For example, a part-time employee who works Monday, Wednesday and Friday gets paid days off on Christmas Day (Friday 25 December), Monday 28 December and New Year's Day (Friday 1 January). They don't get paid for Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December, because Saturday isn't one of their normal work days.

Christmas shutdowns and annual leave

Many workplaces close between Christmas and New Year. Whether your employer can make you take annual leave for the shutdown depends on what covers your job:

• Award or enterprise agreement with a shutdown clause: your employer can require you to take annual leave, as long as they follow the clause. Most require written notice in advance. For example, the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing Award requires 28 days' notice.
• Award and agreement free: your employer can require you to take annual leave if the requirement is reasonable.
• Public holidays during the shutdown are paid as public holidays and aren't taken out of your annual leave.

For a Monday to Friday worker whose workplace closes from Thursday 24 December 2026 to Friday 1 January 2027, that means only 4 days of annual leave: 24, 29, 30 and 31 December. Christmas Day, Monday 28 December and New Year's Day are paid public holidays. To check how much leave you'll have left, use the annual leave calculator.

Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman, public holidays 2026 and its guidance on public holidays, annual leave and shutdowns; Fair Work Act 2009 (sections 94 and 114 to 116); public holiday clauses of the General Retail Industry Award 2020, Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, Restaurant Industry Award 2020, Fast Food Industry Award 2010, Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 and Nurses Award 2020. Checked September 2026. This guide is general information, not legal advice.